This is a discussion on what is this? help please within the General Maintenance, Troubleshooting & Accidents. forums, part of the Tech & Modifying & General Repairs category; hey so i've got a pretty important question since i have no idea what's happening.
i drove my 2002 wrx ...

well my friend and i flushed it because it had a ton of crap in it. so we filled it back up to what said full but there's nothing in the 'reserve' part. should i just fill up the reserve part? i know I'm probably being absolutely stupid but i thought the engine put coolant in the reserve when it didn't need so much. am i completely off base on this?

lemme fix what i just said. we flushed the system of old coolant. then we filled it back up (not the reserve side) and made sure we topped it off, we took it really slow to make sure it was completely full of coolant. i guess I'm just confused because we filled it but there's nothing in the reserve/ plastic portion

To which tank are you referring when you say "reserve"? The plastic clear tank at the front of the engine, or the side tank above the passenger side head and near the turbo? Did you burp the system when you flushed the coolant out? If not, you need to do that right away as it removes most, if not nearly all, of the air in the system.

If the coolant level drops for any reason, the system will pull new coolant from the plastic resevoir, if there is no coolant, guess what it pulls? Air. Fill up that plastic resevoir to where it needs to be, and keep it there.

I'm talking about the plastic reservoir, that's what we did not fill back up. but yes we did let the coolant 'burp' or however you'd say that. we went super slow and made sure it was completely full, definitely was not burping once we were done with it

Okay, I'm going to recommend that you burp the system again (fully from cold to warm, heater on, keep the cap off and fill as necessary), and that you fill that plastic reserve tank to the proper level.

Tap water has a lot of impurities that can cause buildup in the system, not likely to be corrosive, but it can cause diminished flow after some time. Distilled is the best way to combat that. Also, make sure you're using the proper coolant for aluminum engines, a lot of the popular coolant out there is not formulated properly for use in aluminum blocks.

ok well i forget what i used but ill post tomorrow night hopefully. but I'll do that tomorrow thanks for the help. if you don't mind, could you check this the next day or two? ill probably be posting pretty soon about it

ok well i forget what i used but ill post tomorrow night hopefully. but I'll do that tomorrow thanks for the help. if you don't mind, could you check this the next day or two? ill probably be posting pretty soon about it

hey well is there any chance that this is normal? because i talked to two of my friends (who are both really knowledgeable about cars) and we agreed it could definitely be fine because my engine temp is constant at a safe level and my coolant is at a good level too. i live in milwaukee and lately it's been extremely hot like 98 today. any advice on this? i know we talked about adding some but the level is good

Personally, I've never heard a boiling noise come from an engine and have it be good. Every time, it's meant that there was air in the system. If the levels are good, I'd still try to burp the system (takes all of 5 minutes) just to be sure.

sorry for the late response, I'm having complications with my stupid leg that's been *****ed for the last three years so I've been in and out of the hospital. I'm going through driving withdrawals i can't drive stick for two weeks ):

I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with this boiling noise cause i can't figure it out. i have another question since you seem to have good advice about this.

basically i had a dim headlight that was a problem and i replaced a rotten socket and everything worked fine, now all of a sudden my daily runners won't turn on when i put the e-brake down and now it's like my old car where i don't have lights on when the car is just running until i actually flip the light switch. any ideas?

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